Cape Argus Gender Bending Drug Dealer Confusion

I read this article in our local newspaper, then I read it again. In fact, I have now read it seventeen times and I am still none the wiser.

Strip search turns out to be revealing

7 January 2010, 13:07
By Lavern De Vries

Mitchells Plain police will on Thursday charge one of the area’s most notorious drug suspects with fraud – after allegedly discovering during the course of a strip search that the man is actually a woman.
The suspect was arrested at his Kuils River home last Tuesday after police had received a tip-off that drugs might be delivered there. Police strip-searched the suspect, believing that he might have hidden drugs on his person.

Mitchells Plain police station head Director Jeremy Vearey said that it was during the strip search that the suspect was found to be a woman.

Wow. Incredible. Bizarre. But still makes sense, thus far.

We were forced to call Pollsmoor Prison to make arrangements for him to be held there until his bail application today. They then had to make arrangements to remand him in the hospital section, where he was held until his court appearance.

“Him”? “His”? “He”? “His”?
I thought you just said that this was a woman? I thought that was the story here?

Prison authorities had also considered holding him in the women’s section of the prison “for his own safety”, Vearey said.

This would actually make sense, now wouldn’t it? Because it is a woman!
Did you miss that? Because it was actually you that said it just a few lines earlier, Mr Vearey.

The suspect faces charges of the illegal possession of ammunition and the possession of stolen property.
He faces another charge of bribery after he allegedly offered R9 100 to one of the arresting officers in an attempt to persuade him not to register the case, according to Mitchells Plain police spokesman Rewayne Muller.

I think they mean “She faces”, obviously…

The fraud charge relates to him allegedly having two sets of identity documents – one as a woman and the other as a man. It is alleged that he has bought property, including at least two houses with the male identity document.

See how easy it is to confuse people with this whole What gender are you? lark?

A couple of estate agents were none the wiser – fair enough.
But when the police officer who discovered that you don’t have any bits still thinks you’re a bloke and the journalist that he calls with the story about how the man they just arrested turned out to be a woman also still thinks you’re a bloke, then that’s more than a gruff voice and a fake ID – that’s mind control!

All of which leads me to believe that she will get off scot-free when he appears in court later today.